ED Offers Details on School Improvement, ‘Investing in Innovation’ Grants

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) will merge the regular and stimulus portions of the School Improvement Grant fund, an amount totaling more than $3.5 million, and begin releasing grants in December or January, officials said recently.

Guidelines have yet to be released for the stimulus-revamped grant competition, but at the summer conference of the National Association of State Title I Directors (NASTID), officials said the decision to bundle the $540 million from fiscal year 2009 and $3 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds reflects a desire to "demonstrate that this is an area worthy of substantial funding in the future," said Carmel Martin, ED's assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development.

In a separate briefing, ED released some details on another grant competition that has yet to be officially announced, the $650 million Investing in Innovation fund.